What do Young Men Oppose about Feminism?

A Survey Experiment in South Korea

Kazuhiro Terashita

Full-time Lecturer
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo

2025-07-15

Introduction

Introduction

RQ: What feminist claims cause backlash?

  • Motivation
    • Global polarization, democratic backsliding
    • partisanship, class, race, gender
  • Puzzle
    • Young men oppose feminism despite valuing equality
    • How social movements affect polarization by gender?
  • Key point
    • Young men’s rejection of feminism is global
    • Yet, young people seek equality

Literature Review

Literature Review

  • Angry White Men (Kimmel 2017)
    • Men feel victimized by women
    • Men always block women’s advancement (e.g. Osborn et al. 2019; Gillion, Ladd, and Meredith 2020).
  • Gender polarization (Off 2024; Lomazzi and Soboleva 2024)
    • Far-right parties mobilize young men with anti-feminist rhetoric (Miller Idriss 2018)
  • Polarization explanations
    • Not just voting behavior
    • Social movements matter (e.g. anti-immigration)
    • From left-wing to right-wing populist movements (e.g. Gill 2018; Smith 2018; Hochschild 2016)

Literature Review

  • Focus on Gender
    • Young men accept anti-feminist discourse (Kim, Hannah June and Lee 2022; J. H. Kim and Kweon 2022)
    • Young women accept radical feminist claims (Lee 2023)
    • Voter resonance with these claims is unclear (Wasow 2020; Madestam et al. 2013; Pop-Eleches, Robertson, and Rosenfeld 2022)
  • Is young men misogynistic? (Y. Kim 2021)
    • Media bias?
    • My data shows that extreme individuals skew averages
    • Must reconsider claims that “young men are anti-feminist”

Literature Review

Theory and Hypothisis

Hypothisis 1: Young Men

  • Economic vulnerability → quotas seen as threat (J. H. Kim and Kweon 2022)
  • Military service burdens limit opportunities
  • May oppose quotas more than other feminist claims

Hypothesis 1: Young men are more likely to oppose social movements advocating gender quotas.

Hypothisis 2: Older Men

  • Wage equality
    • Seen as loss of resources
    • Fear losing relative advantage

Hypothesis 2a: Older men are more likely to oppose movements correcting the wage gap.

  • Care work
    • Equalizing means loss of time/freedom
    • Older men often have low gender equality awareness

Hypothesis 2b: Older men are more likely to oppose movements advocating equality in care work.

Hypothisis 3: Older Women

  • Generally support feminist claims (wage inequality, care work)
  • Already benefited from quotas
    • May feel additional quotas unnecessary
    • Expanding quotas may reinforce merit stereotypes

Hypothesis 3: Older women are more likely to oppose movements advocating gender quotas.

Hypothisis 4: Eradication of Sexual Crimes

  • Gains broad support across groups
  • People align attitudes with social norms
  • Social desirability bias (SDB) may inflate support

Hypothesis 4: Movements advocating harsher punishments for sex crime are widely supported.

Methods

Case

  • South Korean voters aged 18+

  • Unique South Korean Context

    • Strong gender-based polarization
    • 2022: Yoon Seok-yeol (abolish Ministry of Gender Equality) vs Lee Jae-myung (oppose)
    • Influenced by military service debates & misogynistic online discourse

  • Why Korean case?

    • Good conditions to test hypotheses
    • Generational gap shaped by economic growth/stagnation
    • Fewer confounding factors compared to Westan Europe

Case

Data

  • Original online panel survey by PureSpectrum
  • March 4 to 9, 2025
  • Target sample: 1,500 respondents
    • Sampled to reflect Korean society
    • But…low number of responses from women aged 60 and above
  • Final valid sample: 1,114 (after checks)

Experimental Design

  • Framing experiment
    • Fictitious newspaper article on feminist claims
    • Participants randomly assigned to 5 groups:
      • Control, quotas, wage inequality, care work, sexual crimes
  • Quality checks
    • Attention checks conducted
  • Analysis
    • Regression analysis with interactions (gender, age)
    • No balancing: covariates were included in the analysis
    • Gender: Male and Female, Age: under 40/over 40 and continuous

Experimental Design

Experimental Design

“Toward an Inclusive and Equal Society…” Rally Calls for Gender Equality

On March 8, International Women’s Day, civic groups organized rallies in Seoul and other cities across South Korea. In Seoul, a rally held at Marronnier Park brought together a diverse group of participants who raised their voices in support of a gender-equal society….

Experimental Design

Groups Framing
Control “At the rally, one organizer declared, “We must achieve gender equality.” …”
Quotas “At the rally, one organizer declared, “A quota system for women should be introduced to increase the number of female politicians.”…”
Wage gap “At the rally, one organizer declared, “The gender wage gap must be corrected and equality must be achieved.”…”
Care work “At the rally, one organizer declared, “The burden of housework and childcare should be shared equally between men and women.”…”
Sex crime “At the rally, one organizer declared, “All sexual violence and crimes must be eradicated.”…”

Results

Results

Results

Results

Conclusion

Conclusion

  • Voter support varies by age & gender
    • Young men \(\rightarrow\) oppose quotas
    • Older men \(\rightarrow\) oppose quotas, wage equality & care work
    • Older women \(\rightarrow\) oppose quotas
  • Implications
    • Can exacerbate or reduce polarization
    • Effects shaped by generation
    • Polarization \(\neq\) only younger generation
    • Older generations resist change to maintain status